Letter 23: Theodore Studite, Letter 23; Greek heading: Τῷ αὐτῷ.

Nothing of what you have now disclosed to us, holy father, is so grievous as that our pious lords do not wish us to come to them according to custom and to be deemed worthy of doing them honorable reverence [proskynesis, ceremonial homage], and to render, as every one of men does, the words of farewell and of prayer at their departure. But surely their gentle, unresentful, and Christ-imitating heart would not do all this to bring about our humiliation; since it knows how to be reconciled even with enemies, and not, then, with us, who love and revere them with a true heart. Most excellently did Your Holiness lay before their sacred ears the responses of our insignificance. And that they assented, may this belong to their high-minded, God-given understanding; for indeed they know how to judge divine matters with a straight aim, being filled with wisdom and full of the knowledge of God. They command [us] to ask for what reason we gave ourselves over to the hierarchy [the episcopal office], when the error was known. And to this we answer with reverence that, so far as it lay with us, we did not wish it: partly on account of the perilousness of the dignity, and partly on account of that very thing now spoken of, the matter of the steward [oikonomos, the office of administrator]. But since the Thessalonians came, entreating as it were on behalf of the whole city, and our good lords concurring joined in the vote, a fear came upon us lest we should fail to obey and should set ourselves in opposition both to God and to our pious lords; reasoning that one is able, when the ordination is performed by his own bishops, to flee the danger that lies ahead. For as to what comes afterward: in one respect, [the bishop] is settled far away from the things here; in another, it is possible even for one residing [here] to be guarded in many ways; and again, deaths too occur, and the scandal is removed from the midst, just as it has befallen even in the case of us ourselves, the lowly ones who sit here, that we have been preserved until the present by employing dispensation [oikonomia, the prudent accommodation of strict rule to circumstance]. For one must, so far as is possible, withdraw from the trials—especially when one does not hold the dignity of a bishopric. For these reasons, as before God the witness, we gave ourselves over, supposing (that we may say this too) that it was by no means at all unknown to our pious lords, who through the highest sagacity know things far off and distant—nor indeed even to the most holy patriarch himself, since to him also at that time we wrote out the matter; inasmuch as we, for this very reason—for the sake of not communicating with him who had crowned the adulterer and with the patriarch who preceded, at the time when he alone gave him communion—endured exile at various times. Except that in many ways their honorable mouth too has re-examined and discerned that these things are so. This is our defense, and bring it up, as you command, to their attentive power.

Οὐδὲν ὧν δεδήλωκας ἡμῖν τὸ παρόν, ἅγιε πάτερ, λυπηρόν, ὅσον τὸ μὴ θέλειν τοὺς εὐσεβεῖς ἡμῶν δεσπότας ἐλθεῖν ἡμᾶς κατὰ τὸ σύνηθες καὶ ἀξιωθῆναι τῆς τιμίας αὐτῶν προσκυνήσεως καὶ τοὺς προπεμπτικοὺς καὶ εὐκτηρίους ὡς πᾶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατὰ τὴν ἔξοδον αὐτῶν ἀποδοῦναι λόγους. ἀλλ' οὐ πάντως ἡ εὐμείλικτος καὶ ἀμνησίκακος καὶ χριστομίμητος αὐτῶν καρδία τοῦτο ὅλον ποιήσειεν εἰς τὴν ἡμετέραν ταπείνωσιν· ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς οἶδεν διαλλάττεσθαι, οὐχὶ δὲ ἡμᾶς, τοὺς ἀληθινῇ καρδίᾳ φιλοῦντας καὶ σέβοντας αὐτούς. ἄριστα δὲ ὑπέβαλεν ἡ ἁγιωσύνη σου τὰς τῆς εὐτελείας ἡμῶν ἀποκρίσεις ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς αὐτῶν ἀκοαῖς. καὶ ὅτι κατένευσαν, τῆς αὐτῶν εἴη μεγαλόφρονος θεοσυνεσίας· καὶ γὰρ ἴσασι τὰ θεῖα κρίνειν εὐθυβόλως, ὡς σοφίας μεμεστωμένοι καὶ γνώσεως θεοῦ ἀνάπλεοι. κελεύει δὲ ἐρωτᾶν, τίνος χάριν ἐπεδώκαμεν ἑαυτοὺς εἰς τὴν ἱεραρχίαν, ἐγνωσμένου ὄντος τοῦ σφάλματος. καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο μετ' αἰδοῦς ἀποκρινόμεθα ὅτι, ὅσον τὸ καθ' ἡμᾶς, οὐκ ἐβουλόμεθα, τὸ μὲν διὰ τὸ ἐπικίνδυνον τοῦ ἀξιώματος, τὸ δὲ δι' αὐτὸ ἤδη τὸ λεγόμενον τοῦ οἰκονόμου. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐλήλυθαν οἱ Θεσσαλονικεῖς, ἱκετεύοντες ὡς ἐκ πάσης τῆς πόλεως, οἵ τε δεσπόται ἡμῶν οἱ ἀγαθοὶ συνεπιτιθέμενοι τῷ ψηφίσματι, δέος ἡμῖν ἐγένετο μὴ ὑπακοῦσαι καὶ ἀντιφέρεσθαι θεῷ τε καὶ τοῖς εὐσεβέσιν ἡμῶν δεσπόταις, λογισάμενοι ὅτι δυνατός ἐστιν, ἡνίκα ὑπὸ τῶν οἰκείων ἐπισκόπων ἡ χειροτονία γίγνεται, φυγεῖν τὸν προκείμενον κίνδυνον. πρὸς γὰρ τὸ μετὰ ταῦτα, τὸ μὲν ὅτι πόρρω τῶν ἐνταῦθα ἀποικίζεται, τὸ δὲ ὅτι ἐγχωρεῖ καὶ ἐπιδημοῦντα φυλάττεσθαι κατὰ πολλοὺς τρόπους, εἶτα ὅτι καὶ θάνατοι συμβαίνουσιν καὶ ἐκ μέσου γίνεται τὸ σκάνδαλον, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐφ' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν τῶν ταπεινῶν ὧδε καθημένων συνέβη διαφυλαχθῆναι ἕως τοῦ παρόντος οἰκονομίᾳ χρωμένων· δεῖ γὰρ ἐφ' ὅσον οἷόν τε ὑποχωρεῖν τοὺς πειρασμούς, ἄλλως τε καὶ μὴ ἐπισκοπῆς ἐχόντων ἀξίωμα. Διὰ ταῦτα ὡς ἐπὶ μάρτυρι θεῷ ἐπεδώκαμεν ἑαυτούς, δοκοῦντες, ἵνα καὶ τοῦτο εἴπωμεν, μηδὲ ἠγνοημένον εἶναι πάντως τοῖς εὐσεβέσιν ἡμῶν δεσπόταις, εἰδόσι τὰ πόρρω καὶ μακρὰν δι' ἄκραν ἀγχίνοιαν, ἀλλὰ μὴν οὐδὲ αὐτῷ τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ πατριάρχῃ, ἐπεὶ κἀκείνῳ τηνικαῦτα γεγράφαμεν τὴν ὑπόθεσιν· ὡς ἡμεῖς γε τούτου χάριν, ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ κοινωνῆσαι τῷ στεφανώσαντι τὸν μοιχὸν καὶ τῷ προηγησαμένῳ πατριάρχῃ, ἡνίκα μόνον μετεδίδοι αὐτῷ, διαφόρως τὴν ἐξορίαν ὑπέστημεν. πλὴν ὅτι πολλαχῶς καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ τίμιον αὐτῶν στόμα ἐπανέκρινεν καὶ διέγνω ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχειν. Αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἀπολογία, καὶ ταύτην ὡς κελεύεις ἀνάγαγε τῷ εὐηκόῳ αὐτῶν κράτει.